As I write this, the temperature is somewhere in the 60s, the sky is blue, and I can hear the sounds of the boys playing in the front yard through the wide open windows*. They're practicing the "Destroy the Death Star" game that Blaine designed for their Jedi Training Camp birthday party nearly two years ago. I dug it out of the garage in an attempt to help Quinn come up with some games for "Happy Family" day, which he declared it to be on the way home from school this afternoon.

He's done that once before, stating that it was "Brothers Day" and begging for a party. He is the quintessential cruise director, always looking for something fun to do and people to do it with. The thing is, Liam is probably exactly the opposite: more like Dr. Spock, he is all business, all the time, and needs to know the reason and the truth behind any and all things. Silly (or even what most people would classify as simple fun) isn't all that fun to him, and his reaction when he heard Quinn announce his plans in the van on the way home was to erupt with shouts of "NO!" Not exactly the response you'd expect from a Happy Family member, is it?

Quinn and Liam's particular mix of oil and water isn't new, but I've struggled with it for the last week especially. Quinn came home last week announcing that his teacher had told the class that if they were going to make leprechaun traps, they needed to bring them to school before March 17. To which Liam immediately responded, "THERE IS NO! SUCH! THING! AS A LEPRECHAUN!!!" In fact, the dialog went something like this:

Quinn: "YES THERE IS!"

Liam: "NO THERE'S NOT! YOU'RE FALSE!"

Quinn: "Well, Mrs. C says there is!"

Liam: "THERE'S NOT!"

Quinn: "Is!"

And so on, to the point that Liam eventually pointed to Quinn and demanded that he be sold, at which point Quinn burst into tears thinking that we'd do that very thing. It took about 45 minutes, but I finally got both of them calmed down, with Quinn promising me that he wouldn't bring up the "L" word in front of his brother again (and me counting down the days 'til March 18).

To be honest, I think it was this very exchange that got me thinking again about homeschooling last week. About how that never would have happened if we'd been homeschooling. How Quinn would never had been told that leprechauns were real, and could be trapped, and that, in fact, that  trapping them was encouraged. I would have known that going down that particular road--even something as seemingly inocuous as discussing the subject of leprechauns--in the presence of my highly logical and very prudent Aspie was asking for trouble, with a capital T and that rhymes with B and that stands for BAD, as in IDEA.

Lest anyone think I'm some sort of prude without a sense of humor, I actually thought it was pretty darn cute and imaginative that Quinn wanted to trap a leprechaun. I'm all for running with an idea as long as it falls within the bounds of safety and common sense and I wanted to see what he'd come up with. But I know my kids well enough to know that attempting to engage Liam in that sort of thing is something that has to be finessed, if it's attempted at all. Very often, it's simply not worth it. He learns in a different way and although it's taken me two years to finally figure that out, I no longer get angry at him for the black and white lens through which he views the world.

Liam finally did come around to the idea of Happy Family Day. In fact, I think it was his idea for the brothers to dress up in Star Wars costumes. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to have a problem with pretending to be a character from Star Wars, although he does know that it's science FICTION. I think he enjoys attempting to replicate the scenes that he's seen on screen a thousand times. If someone doesn't play their part correctly, he's quick to let them know how they messed up but usually just as quick to start all over again.

If he were only so generous toward the little green people.

*As I click "Publish," the sun has set and the house is dark except for the light next to my computer monitor. It's barely 7:30 but the boys have all been put to bed, one of the drawbacks of having to get up at 6:00 a.m. each morning in order to get to public school on time. But that's another subject for another day.